Consumer associations criticize the government’s “anti-inflation quarter”

The UFC-Que Choisir, Familles Rurales and the CLCV suggest instead that the executive suspend the provision obliging supermarkets to keep a 10% margin on food products.

By Le Figaro with AFP

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The “anti-inflation quarter” operation consists in letting large retailers freely choose a selection of products on which they undertake to offer “the lowest possible priceby cropping on their margins. smile / stock.adobe.com

Three consumer associations criticized the commercial operationtrimestre anti-inflation»which will not resultnever“at prices”as competitive as possiblefailing to suspend a legal provision obliging supermarkets to keep a 10% margin on food products, according to a letter to the government consulted by AFP on Thursday.

The UFC-Que Choisir, Rural Families and Consumption Housing Framework (CLCV), three major consumer associations, wrote an open letter to Elisabeth Borne, being very critical of the so-called “trimestre anti-inflation“, announced Monday by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the Minister Delegate in particular for Trade Olivia Grégoire.

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This operation, which is due to come into effect from March 15 until June 15, consists of letting large-scale retailers freely choose a selection of products on which they undertake to offer “the lowest possible priceby cropping on their margins. However, this expression is not defined by law, causing associations to say that the government “is content today to rely on the good will of large retailers to limit its margins (or claim to do so through purely marketing operations)».

” READ ALSO – Inflation: large retailers agree to trim their margins

Suspend the framework of the “threshold of resale at a loss”

Guylaine Brohan, president of Rural Families, Alain Bazot, president of UFC-Que Choisir and Jean-Yves Mano, president of CLCV, suggest instead that the government suspend a provision called “SRP+10“, which came into force in 2019. This framework of the “resale at a loss threshold(SRP), its full name, was adopted as part of the Egalim 1 law which was supposed to protect farmers’ income. It obliges supermarkets to sell food products at least 10% more expensive than the price at which they bought it.

According to parliamentary evaluation work, the measure “seems to have only very partially achieved its objective» increase the remuneration of agricultural producers. The Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate estimated in an information report on trade negotiations and inflation the cost of the measure, for consumers, at 600 million euros. This measure entered into force as “experimental» until April 15, 2023, but a bill passed at first reading in the National Assembly and the Senate, that of Renaissance deputy Frédéric Descrozaille, plans to renew it.


TO HAVE ALSO – Bruno Le Maire announces an “anti-inflation quarter” in supermarkets until June

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